A steel mill in the northern Turkey booked a Baltic Sea cargo, comprising 15,000 tonnes of HMS 1&2 (80:20) at $471 per tonne and 15,000 tonnes of shredded at $481 per tonne cfr.
The same mill also booked a European cargo, comprising HMS 1&2 (80:20) at $463 per tonne, shredded at $468 per tonne and bonus at $473 per tonne cfr. The cargo composition was not clear at the time of publication.
In the previous transaction, on Friday April 30, a steel mill in the Iskenderun region booked a European cargo, comprising 20,000 tonnes of HMS 1&2 (80:20), 8,000 tonnes of shredded, 10,000 tonnes of bonus and 2,000 tonnes of busheling at an average price of $453 per tonne cfr.
As a result of the fresh trading activities, the daily scrap indices went up sharply on Wednesday May 5.
Fastmarkets’ daily index for steel scrap, HMS 1&2 (80:20 mix), North Europe origin, cfr Turkey, was calculated at $469.22 per tonne on Wednesday, up by $18.64 per tonne day on day.
The North Europe index was up $42.62 per tonne on a weekly basis.
And the daily index for steel scrap, HMS 1&2 (80:20 mix), US origin, cfr Turkey, was calculated at $473.80 per tonne on May 5, up by $18.46 per tonne day on day.
This put the premium for US material over European scrap at $4.58 per tonne on May 5, compared with $4.76 per tonne on May 4.
The main reason behind the increase was China’s Ministry of Finance removing the export tax rebate on some steel products on May 1, which caused a sharp increase in the steel prices across the region and in countries exporting steel products to China.
A steel mill was heard selling rebar to Singapore at $695 per tonne fob on actual weight basis.
Turkish rebar export offers were at $700 per tonne fob and higher, Fastmarkets was told.
In contrast, Fastmarkets’ weekly price assessment for steel reinforcing bar (rebar), export, fob main port Turkey, was $645-650 per tonne fob on April 29, unchanged week on week.
Long steel mill Kardemir, in Turkey’s Karabük region, opened its domestic rebar sales on Wednesday May 5, offering 12-32mm material at 6,578.50 lira ($793) per tonne ex-works, including 18% VAT, and sold at least 20,500 tonnes of material on the same day.
Fastmarkets’ weekly price assessment for steel reinforcing bar (rebar), domestic, exw Turkey, was just 6,000-6,100 lira ($730-742) per tonne on April 29.
